Rose Bowl Game
The new 12-team College Football Playoff has plenty of positives. We get to see new names in the mix. We get more marquee postseason matchups with high stakes. Star players compete in more postseason games, and in a year like this one, we get a truly unpredictable playoff bracket. But it also comes with some downsides.
As part of the expanded playoffs, college football biggest bowl games (Cotton Bowl, Orange Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, Peach Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Rose Bowl) all got folded into the postseason tournament. Four of those games will host quarterfinals each year, while an additional two will host semifinals on a rotating basis.
This year, the Rose Bowl is host to one of the four quarterfinals and perhaps the most anticipated matchup between the Oregon Ducks and Ohio State Buckeyes. However, due to the condensed schedule of the playoff, teams are spending far less time at the actual bowl sites.
Traditionally, teams would arrive for the Rose Bowl on Dec. 25 or 26 and spend the entire week in LA. Now, the teams arrived just three days before the game. That means no “bowl week’ experiences, such as going to Disneyland and, more important, the legendary Lawry’s Beef Bowl.
Real ball knowers will tell you that the Beef Bowl is one of the bets traditions in college football. It began in 1957 at Lawry’s Prime Rib in Beverly Hills. The famed restaurant hosted both Rose Bowl teams for an all-you-can-eat prime rib dinner. Team captains learn how to make the traditional table-side spinning salad and one representative from each team gets to make the traditional first slice.
The dinner also includes sides such as mashed potatoes, corn and salad. Up until recently, the restaurant would track how much each team eats and declare the team that ate the most the winner.
“The Beef Bowl is an opportunity for us to celebrate the players and coaches and kick off the festivities of the Rose Bowl Game,” Ryan O’Melveny, CEO of Lawry’s Restaurants Inc. said last year. “It’s a tradition that we look forward to every year as it has been passed down through my family for generations.”
Sadly, the playoff has killed that tradition, which is one that the Duke’s Mayo Bowl and Pop-Tarts Bowl could only dream of replicating.